I finished my art explorations this week and I'm waiting for the paintings to dry so I can continue.


 


​The heart is a bonus painting that goes on a small easel that I'm sending to someone who ordered a larger work. The grayscale painting has a white sapphire in it and is intended to be backlit. I'll post pictures once it's done. The blue and purple painting needs some work, but it's a rendition of a hypergate from swtor. The canvas panel painting is an old one that I gave new life to by adding different colors. I'm not sure how much I want to layer on.

Finally, the flower painting is from when I lived in Korea. It was inspired by a Van Gogh painting that I liked when I was younger--and still like, of course. I never finished it, so I painted the sides and redid the background. I think it could use another round before it's finished.

Here's the two paintings I've been working on, Sea and Star Slice. Although they definitely have some color I'm going to tone them down somewhat so that they capture the look of their companions. I always hate this intermediate stage of painting because I have to exaggerate the color in order for it to work.

I'm going to paint this weekend before I go away next week, and continue posting my progress. Thanks for looking!

I used to hate the idea of using pre-stretched canvas. "It's a necessary evil," I told myself, even while fearing that people would look down on me as an artist.

I live in an apartment; I have a bunch of unsold paintings hanging in random places from when my boyfriend went on an art-hanging rampage (I was away), and I just don't have the space or the capacity to bother with rolls of canvas right now. I know it's better in many ways, but it's not better for me.

However, buying canvas, especially in odd sizes such as the 3x9 projects I'm working on, can be annoying. Even art stores have customers in them who might pick up a canvas and 'dent' it, stretching out a piece and distorting it. A canvas is like a notebook. It should be treated with respect, because you're going to fill it with valuable content. Shipping artwork is also difficult because even the best intentions in packing can go awry.

Thankfully, it's easy to fix these problems with a spray bottle of water, a towel or paper towel, and patience. It might take a few rounds, but if your canvas gets a weird dent--not a hole--you can fix it by spraying with water, wiping off the excess water, and waiting for it to dry back into shape. The same is true if you're fixing the distortion that a hole has caused in your canvas.

I always get frustrated by how slow the process takes. I've been wrangling my 3x9 canvases all morning because the stretcher bars are so large relative to the 'open space' where the back of the canvas is exposed. You may have to wet the canvas behind where the bar is by putting your fingers underneath the bar and spreading the water in there. Of course, improper ventilation means that you should use artificial airflow to get in there and dry it faster, or make sure that you're not in a humid climate. You may actually have to stretch out other parts of the canvas in the process of getting the entire back to tighten.

Anyway, that's why I'm sitting here, annoyed at imperfections that realistically, I'm the only one who will notice, waving around canvases like they're glowsticks and I'm the last idiot at a rave.

 I did this last night and I'm happy with the initial results. Although I think there are some areas that I'll want to go back over once it dries, it really captured the cool vs. warm feel that I wanted. It looks like some of the small paintings I've done recently, such as Florida Vacation. Now I have to wait 5-7 days for it to dry. I layered the paint on somewhat more thickly than anticipated in some spots, and the weather in Boulder has been slightly more humid as of late.

​This painting is based on this schematic, which I wrote about in a previous post.